Trucks at the Murrin Murrin nickel-cobalt mining joint venture in Western Australia | The Australian

THE next time you are met with the fashionable climate hashtag #keepitintheground by a holier-than-thou climate warrior, calmly remind them that their iPhone, iPad and electric car is not as “sustainable” as they might have hoped for and definitely doesn’t run on a planet-friendly diet of tofu and mung beans.

THEN advise them to direct their misinformed, groupthink-enabled rage at their silicone valley eco-icons – Elon Musk and Apple et al – who are digging gigantic holes in the ground too. Oh, and hiring child miners aged 4 who are living a hell on earth in the Congo mining for their Cobalt…

Apple fires up fight for cobalt

Apple is seeking to buy cobalt directly from mining companies amid a looming shortage of the metal, a key ingredient for the lithium-ion batteries in its iPhones and iPads.

Fearful that the boom in electric cars might put pressure on supplies, the Californian technology giant has been in discussions to secure contracts for “several thousand metric tons” of cobalt each year for at least five years, according to Bloomberg.

While smartphones use an estimated ten grams of refined cobalt, a typical electric car battery uses five to ten kilograms.

If sales of electric vehicles hit a forecast of 30 million by 2030, it will drive further explosive growth in cobalt demand, according to research for Glencore, the mining company, by CRU, a commodities analyst. It forecasts a “material” impact from demand for electric cars by as early as 2020, with an extra 24,000 tonnes needed as early as 2020, compared with about 110,000 tonnes mined globally in 2017 and an additional 314,000 tonnes by 2030.

If Apple secures its own cobalt contracts, rather than leaving it to companies that supply its batteries, it could find itself in fierce competition with carmakers for the metal.

The talks, understood to have begun more than a year ago, come after a tripling in the price of cobalt in the past 18 months, as carmakers jump into the fully electric or hybrid power business, following the likes of Toyota and Tesla. Countries including Britain and France have said that they will ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars from 2040.

Apple declined to comment on the talks. However, Ivan Glasenberg, chief executive of Glencore, the world’s biggest cobalt producer, said in December that the iPhone maker was among the companies it was talking to about cobalt, along with Tesla and Volkswagen.

Overnight (AEDT) Mr Glasenberg said that no deal had been signed. “We don’t have any long-term contracts with Apple; we haven’t signed anything with Apple.”

He added: “We have seen the investments that motor car companies are making in electric vehicles and they will need battery supply, so the demand for electric vehicles is strong. It will require a lot of cobalt and we all know the geological scarcity of cobalt.”

Mr Glasenberg noted that supply was “relatively constrained”, as cobalt could not be mined like lithium, but was a by-product mainly of copper and nickel.

There are also questions about the stability of supply in the Democratic Republic of Congo after a vote last month by its parliament to raise royalties on mining. The change is designed to ensure that the country gets a bigger share of the money paid for its commodities, but it will raise costs for producers.

Mining companies are lobbying against the change, which Mr Glasenberg said would lead to under-investment. “Can the world produce as much cobalt (as) it’s going to need? … What happens in the DRC is going to be very important going forward,” he said.

Apple’s move to secure its own supplies of cobalt comes amid a global drive to safeguard supplies of crucial metals used in electronics while reducing dependence on the DRC, which supplies two thirds of the world’s cobalt but has been criticised for human rights abuses, including using child labour.

Cobalt miners in the Congo. Pic: Reuters

In response to criticism from human rights groups, Apple now uses only cobalt refined and smelted in China, Belgium and Finland. It will accept metal from the DRC only if it comes from mines that can prove they provide adequate health and safety protections and safeguards against child labour.

Michael Giblin, mining analyst at S & P Global Market Intelligence, said that end-users of cobalt were already looking for alternatives to the metal.

“Due to the rapid increase in the cobalt price over the last year, plus the fact that the majority of cobalt will be sourced from areas with political and social instability, battery technology is being continually evolved to reduce the reliance on cobalt.

“Conventional battery chemistries are being modified to reduce the cobalt content by increasing content of other metals such as nickel or manganese.”

“Even the most virulent supporter of renewable energy can, after enough waterboarding, admit the link between more renewables and increased power prices.

“…and bring in diesel-powered generators to stop the lights turning off. It is surely the biggest admission that our renewables experiment has been a failure when you have to call in generators to burn pure fossil fuels.”

EXCELLENT read on the unreliable-energy fiasco that is wreaking havoc on the livelihoods of Victoria and South Australian taxpayers…

Comparing 2016 (red) and 2017 (blue) average wholesale prices of electricity by state

South Australians have a Labor government and its deranged, ideological obsession with wind and solar power to thank for their status as an international joke.

Paying the highest retail power prices in the world (with much worse to come – see above), routine load shedding and statewide blackouts, and a grid on the brink of collapse, is all the inevitable consequence of attempting to run an economy on sunshine and breezes.

One of the reasons things got this way (and it happened in a bit over 16 years) is the manner in which the useful idiots in the mainstream press pumped wind power, as if it was a sacred gift delivered by some magical and benevolent deity.

In South Australia, the wind cult kicked off around 2002 when its then Premier, Mike Rann started tilting at…

BUT, aren’t petrochemicals, like diesel, the same “dirty” fossil fuels that climate catastrophists scarify us for indulging in, claiming that their use will fry the planet? #LeaveItInTheGround, #BigOilShill, #DivestFossilFuels – a few of the propagandised euphemisms bandied around by eco-activists.

SO, that question again – what’s the point of the billion dollar, taxpayer funded, unreliable energy (wind and solar) experiment?

FOR the Jay Weatherill’s of the planet, one could only assume that it’s a moral blend of “Save the Planet” virtue, mixed with “Save the Planet” virtue. It certainly has nothing to do with sense or reason, or being “green”…

Generators the Weatherill government is buying to prevent blackouts this summer ahead of the March state election will use 80,000 litres of diesel an hour.

The fleet of generators, currently being shipped from Europe to South Australia, have been used for temporary generation around the world. But those behind the South Australian energy security project, costing taxpayers more than $300 million, yesterday could not say if the generators had ever been used as part of a permanent solution.

In a major revision to his $550m go-it-alone energy plan, Premier Jay Weatherill last week announced nine “state-of-the-art” gen­erators providing up to 276 megawatts would be purchased to provide back-up power for the next two summers.

AS part of the government’s $550 million go-it-alone energy plan, the Premier, along with Tesla’s subsidy-sucking vampire Elon Musk, announced in July that Tesla would build a $200 million 100MW giant battery pack to store energy for when the wind don’t blow or when the sun don’t shine…

IS Elon hedging his grandiose claim of Tesla saving South Australia from complete energy meltdown? Sounds a lot like it. Ouch.

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BIG GOVERNMENT

JUST as socialist central planning failed miserably before it was replaced by free market economies, green central planning will have to be discarded before South Australia will be able to see a return to energy security and erase its name from the unenviable title of having the “highest power prices in the world.”

UNTIL big government backs off, taxpayers will continue to pay billions of dollars more for fake fixes to a fake catastrophe.

“My sympathies to all the South Australians who didn’t vote for this.”Jo Nova.

YOUR mad global warming policies and ruinously juvenile obsession with green power have rewarded South Australia with the World’s most expensive power prices, helping to destroy your economy and hurt the poor.

Bravo.

SA has the world’s highest power prices, Carbon and Energy Markets director Bruce Mountain says — so get off the grid

ESCAPING the electricity grid by pairing solar panels and new battery technology is the best way for SA households to escape the world’s most expensive power prices, a top expert says.

Carbon and Energy Markets director Bruce Mountain revealed in June that he was working on a study that found SA was passing Denmark as the most expensive place in the world to keep the lights on.

He has now published the results, which conclude SA’s prices are three times that recorded in the US and about 50 per cent higher than the UK.

THE solution? “Escape the electricity grid by pairing solar panels and new battery technology…” ! That’s all good and well for those who can afford the luxury of solar panels and their (toxic) battery backup systems.

And, what for businesses and heavy industry – the one’s that still remain? Use Elon “Taxpayer subsidy-sucking vampire” Musk’s $200 million giant battery pack that could have enough battery storage to replace wind power for a whole minute (maybe 2), should the wind stop?

Like the old sailors say, “The wind is free, but everything else costs money”.

THERE’s always the DIY options that are being fitted by SA businesses and households living in fear of routine load shedding, mass blackouts and “the world’s highest power prices” :

Adelaide oval are examining a diesel and gas co-generation option. “If the stadium went black it would be a nightmare,” chief executive Andrew Daniels said. “Plus, can you imagine the damage it would do to the state’s reputation?” Think that ship’s sailed Mr Daniels!

Coopers Brewery has its own power supply via gas, and was unaffected by the September 28 blackout that devastated industry.

“South Australian businesses and households have been scrambling to secure their own back-up supply since two blackouts hit the state in little more than two months. One of the largest sellers of industrial diesel generators, Genpower Australia, has seen a 50 per cent spike in sales and service calls in the past three months. Families had been willing to pay $11,000 up front for a diesel generator back-up while one regional supermarket on Yorke Peninsula, 160km west of Adelaide, bought a $35,000 generator last week to ensure its freezers stayed on, the company said.” Shift to DIY power at Adelaide Oval | The Australian

BUT, aren’t these “industrial diesel generators” and LPG solutions simply going back to “dirty” fossil fuels – the same (cheap, reliable, efficient) hydrocarbons that freak out the Green faith?!

SO, what’s the point of the whole billion dollar, taxpayer funded, unreliable energy (wind and solar) experiment? For the Jay Weatherill’s of the planet, one could assume it’s a moral blend of “Save the Planet” virtue, mixed with “Save the Planet” virtue.

There certainly is no sense, reason or cost benefit analysis when you enlist in the Green faith.

BUT here is the ultimate craziness. All the money, all the wrecking of views, all the lost jobs through higher electricity prices and all the blackouts – all the pain for nothing. The effect on global temperatures so incredibly small, nobody would notice.

It gets worse…

Neighbouring State, Victoria, whose Socialist Left government is also obsessed with green energy and the climate faith has closed Hazelwood coal-fired power station, which did not merely supply Victoria with a quarter of its power but also helped bail out South Australia.

Come the hot Australian summer in a few months time, this situation is going to spiral way, way out of control. Bookmark it.

There seems to be little understanding of the simple fact that electric vehicles (EV) are, in the main, pollution shifters – from tailpipe to power generation facility (Ban from 2040 on diesel and petrol car sales, 26 July). The electricity generation and transmission system is already tested to its limits during a harsh winter. Only if objections disappeared to the mass building of thousands of the largest wind turbines, plus similar numbers of hectares of photovoltaic solar generation, could the pollution shifters’ argument be refuted. Even then, there would still be need for conventional or nuclear generation for when the sun doesn’t shine and wind doesn’t blow – doubling the capital requirement.

Then there is the transmission system. Its capacity is based on “averaging”. It assumes that not everyone will be using the…